Re: [Harp-L] LW's Influence - sharing info w/the list

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Tom Muck wrote:
<I think it's a common misconception that he copied horn licks. He liked 
<the sound of the horn on the records and tried to emulate the sound 
<using an amp  and a mic, but did not emulate the actual music. He just 
<had a musical brain that was able to put notes together in an original 
<and beautiful way that  few people have ever been able to achieve on 
<any instrument.

Walter certainly had an original mind, but it's a mistake to think that 
his music sprang full-blown from his own genius without influence.  For 
a start, Walter didn't invent the blues form.

To take a more detailed example, on "I'm Just Your Fool," you can hear 
Sonny Boy Williamson I (John Lee Williamson) all over the place, and 
especially in the way Walter uses his hands to shape the tone. 
Similarly, you can hear the influence of jump band sax players like 
Illinois Jacquet in some of Walter's instrumentals when he alternates 
between the tonic note on the draw 2 reed and the same note on the blow 
3 reed, producing the same effect that tenor sax players create through 
the use of alternate fingerings.

Previous posts to this list have noted that according to his sidemen, 
Walter listened carefully to Lee Morgan and other hard bop players, and 
played their tunes with his band.  Too bad there are no recordings of 
that stuff.  But if he played the head to "Sidewinder", he played horn 
licks.

We all tend to think that geniuses come out of nowhere.  Very rarely, 
they do.  Most of the time, it's more like Isaac Newton said when a 
contemporary called him a genius.  Newton responded that he stood on the 
shoulders of giants.

Standing on the shoulders of giants doesn't make Walter less of a 
genius.  He learned what his contemporaries had to teach him, and then 
he went farther.  That's genius.

Regards, Richard Hunter
hunterharp.com
Latest mp3s always at http://broadjam.com/rhunter